Sharon Shannon and a whole bunch of guys cranking on Galway Girl

[Charlieshafer]

The quality of the video may not be great, but man, wish I was over there for the night...

[Eddie Sheehy]

Salthill Prom - this weekend...
"Oh I took a ski down the old long walk..."

[Eddie Sheehy]

And a great rendition of "Music for a Found Harmonium".

[Charlieshafer]

Yes indeed. In her shows she completes the set with a couple of other tunes that vary, and calls the whole thing "The Penguin." Her "Live In Galway" cd from years back has another great version of that. Tough tune, easy to mess up the timing in a large group.

[Paul Brett]

Most pups in Ireland if you strum a few open D chords on a mandolin the crowd will start singing Galway Girl. A lot of people don't realise it was written by Steve Earl. That version with Mundy singing was a phenomenal hit here a few years ago.

[Charlieshafer]

So it's that big of a hit over there? I always figured it was just a nice simple tune, easy to play with a few folks as it's easy to learn.

[Paul Brett]

To give you an idea of how popular it is...last Sunday night I was playing in a ballad/trad session in my local pup, 2 guitars, harmonica and my mandolin, we did this and the crowd "sang" the melody bit between the chorus and the verse. You would have to listen to hear the guitars let alone the mandolin playing the tune.

[citeog]

And a great rendition of "Music for a Found Harmonium".

I like that tune. My favourite version is by Patrick Street.

Paul

[kmmando]

Who is the mandolin player?

[mandroid]

Charlieshafer, what happened to the clip?

[Perry]

To give you an idea of how popular it is...last Sunday night I was playing in a ballad/trad session in my local pup, 2 guitars, harmonica and my mandolin, we did this and the crowd "sang" the melody bit between the chorus and the verse. You would have to listen to hear the guitars let alone the mandolin playing the tune.

Paul are there any other sing along tunes that are hugely popular in Ireland you can think of?

We play Galway Girl and it's a huge hit over here in NY too Always looking for a few more....especially tunes as catchy as Galway Girl.

[Paul Brett]

Who is the mandolin player?

He goes by the stage name of Mundy, he's better known for his guitar playing. He does a kind of pop/folk type stuff. His biggest hit would be "July". I met him once at a record promo lovely down to earth kind of guy.

[Paul Brett]

Paul are there any other sing along tunes that are hugely popular in Ireland you can think of?

We play Galway Girl and it's a huge hit over here in NY too Always looking for a few more....especially tunes as catchy as Galway Girl.

You'll need to give me time to think on that.

To me, there are 2 musical beasts in Ireland. There's the session, which is usually hardcore tunes with an odd song thrown in, what you'd expect. But then there's the ballad session which can range from a night of all rebel songs and a few tunes thrown in or a mixture of folk songs and pop songs with an odd well known tune thrown in. Galway Girl gets played in the ballad session more often than not with the usual Black Velvet Band, Sean South, Kelly From Killane, in fact look at Damien Dempsey's The Rocky Road for an example of what's good in a ballad session. I'll take a set list from one of the Sunday nights I do and post it here soon.

[Eddie Sheehy]

Right now "Wagon Wheel" is a huge crowd pleaser - right up there with Galway Girl...

[Charlieshafer]

Charlieshafer, what happened to the clip?

Seemed like it just loaded slowly for me. Did it disappear for you?

[foldedpath]

The video doesn't load at all for me, it shows an error message in a pink box saying:

"Video Unavailable
This video has either been removed from Facebook or is not visible due to privacy settings."

I'm not a Facebook member, so that might be the reason? Whatever the reason, posting videos or links to videos on Facebook isn't the best way to distribute them, if you want to reach the widest audience. Just sayin'....

[John Kelly]

The video doesn't load at all for me, it shows an error message in a pink box saying:

"Video Unavailable
This video has either been removed from Facebook or is not visible due to privacy settings."

I'm not a Facebook member, so that might be the reason? Whatever the reason, posting videos or links to videos on Facebook isn't the best way to distribute them, if you want to reach the widest audience. Just sayin'....

Same problem for me - just a blank and the message where the video would normally appear.

[Cheryl Watson]

I got it too load...had to refresh my page. This is obviously a good jam tune--simple, catchy, raucous in a good partying way, until the end which is anything but simple--I had never heard of Sharon Shannon--she's very talented.

[Bren]

So it's that big of a hit over there? I always figured it was just a nice simple tune, easy to play with a few folks as it's easy to learn.

It was used in a cider ad so it's quite well-known in the UK & Ireland.

Last time I saw Steve Earle in Aberdeen, he introduced it by saying , "You know, I was a bad alcoholic , sunk pretty low and I drank all kinds of weird stuff, but never in my life did I ever drink &$%£ing cider"

I'm sure he enjoyed the ad fees though.

I didn't try to play along but I thought I saw a capo on the mandolin which reminded me of trying to play along with a Sharon Shannon CD and everything was a semitone sharp, Eb for D. I guess she always does that?

Anyway, seemed like a great gig to bring in the New Year. All the best for 2014 everyone!

[Eddie Sheehy]

I got it too load...had to refresh my page. This is obviously a good jam tune--simple, catchy, raucous in a good partying way, until the end which is anything but simple--I had never heard of Sharon Shannon--she's very talented.

The end part is "Music for a Found Harmonium' written by Simon Jeffes of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra - it was the theme for the movie "Napoleon Dynamite". The A part is fairly straightforward but the B part modulates and is a bit tricky.

[Eddie Sheehy]

Patrick Street also has a version:

[Eddie Sheehy]

duplicate post

[Eddie Sheehy]

Here's an ABC from THESESSION.ORG:

X: 1
T: Music For A Found Harmonium
R: reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Dmaj
DE|:FDGD FDDD|FDGD FDDD|FDGD FDDD|EDCD FDDD:|
|:EDCD EDCD|FDCD FDCD|GDED CDGD|1 FDDD D2 DD:|2 FDDD D2 D=F||
K: Cmaj
|:cFEF {EF}GFEF|1 cFEF EE2 F:|2 cFEF EE2 D||
K: Fmaj
|BFDF GFDF|BFDF GFDF|BFEF GEEG|BFEF GEEG|
|^cGEG cGGG|^cGEG cGGG|^cGEG cGGG|^cGEG cGGG|
K: Dmaj
|:FDGD FDDD|FDGD FDDD|FDGD FDDD|EDCD FDDD:|
|:EDCD EDCD|FD=CD FDCD|GDED CDED|1 FDDD D2 DD:|2 FDDD D4||

[Charlieshafer]

I got it too load...had to refresh my page. This is obviously a good jam tune--simple, catchy, raucous in a good partying way, until the end which is anything but simple--I had never heard of Sharon Shannon--she's very talented.

Sharon is probably one of the most important Irish musicians currently active. Well worth digging into her discography. She does mess with the keys, but not with the actual tuning, as her boxes are tuned to b/c or C#/D (she plays both, as well as a few custom boxes by Peter Hyde which are F's and B flats. Can't mess with the tuning on a box.

Sharon never plays anything too straight. Earlier she did a few tunes that are well worth downloading from, of course, a paid store, one of which is The Phil Cunningham Set and the other Glentown, both of which are predominantly solo button box. These show her skill, which is pretty much as high a level as any who've played. Her later cd's with Michael McGoldrick and others, "Renegade" and "Tunes" take a lot of liberties with the tradition, but are phenomenal. There's a reason Steve Earl wanted to team up with her.

[Mike Anderson]

Sharon is probably one of the most important Irish musicians currently active. Well worth digging into her discography. She does mess with the keys, but not with the actual tuning, as her boxes are tuned to b/c or C#/D (she plays both, as well as a few custom boxes by Peter Hyde which are F's and B flats. Can't mess with the tuning on a box.

Sharon never plays anything too straight. Earlier she did a few tunes that are well worth downloading from, of course, a paid store, one of which is The Phil Cunningham Set and the other Glentown, both of which are predominantly solo button box. These show her skill, which is pretty much as high a level as any who've played. Her later cd's with Michael McGoldrick and others, "Renegade" and "Tunes" take a lot of liberties with the tradition, but are phenomenal. There's a reason Steve Earl wanted to team up with her.

Yes indeed - my two favorite Sharon albums are in fact the first one with Glentown, and Tunes with McGoldrick etc. She might take liberties with the tradition on both albums, but not to the extent of those that came between these two periods IMO, with her delving heavily into pop and reggae. I am of the school of thought that forced marriages between genres do not always come out as something fresh or interesting - it's the way I'm wired, for better or worse. But her chops and her obvious delight in the music are beyond reproach.

Happily, I got to see her play in Vancouver many years back, and she signed my CD insert. A lovely person who seemed quite surprised that people knew her music and wanted to sidle up to her and lay on the praise.